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Brain Repairs Itself after Chronic Alcohol Abuse

Overcoming chronic alcohol abuse enables brains to repair themselves,
according to new research from the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies
at the University of North Carolina , Chapel Hill. 1

The researchers fed rats a diet including enough alcohol to simulate
alcoholic binges, that is, keeping them intoxicated for a period
of four days. During their “binges,” the rats’
ability to create new brain cells was reduced.

However, after the researchers sobered up the animals, they had
a spurt of new brain cell development in just seven days. "After
[alcohol] abstinence for one week, we saw a huge burst in the number
of new cells being born," said one of the researchers. Several
weeks later, the rats had "a pronounced increase" in new
nerve cell formation in the brain.

The study is the first to demonstrate that brain cell production
can return after abstinence from alcohol abuse.

People who drink too much and are thinking about either reducing
or eliminating their drinking should find these findings encouraging,
although humans have not yet been tested for the positive brain
effect.